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I knew not that contention could be rendered fo fweet and pleasurable a thing to the nerves as I then felt it. We remained filent, without any fenfation of that foolish pain which takes place, when in fuch a circle you look for ten minutes in one another's faces without faying a word. Whilft this lafted, the Monk rubbed his horn-box upon the fleeve of his tunic; and as foon as it had acquired a little air of brightness by the friction-he made a low bow, and faid 'twas too late to fay whether it was the weakness or goodness of our tempers which had involved us in this conteft-but be it as it would he begg'd we might exchange boxes-in faying this he prefented his to me with one hand, as he took mine from me with the other and having kiss'd it-with a stream of good-nature in his eyes, he put it into his bofomand took his leave.

I guard this box as I would the inftrumental parts of my religion, to help my mind on to fomething better: in truth, I feldom go abroad without it: and oft and many a time have I called up by it the courteous fpirit of its owner to regulate my own in the justlings of the world; they had found full employment for his, as I learnt from his story, 'till about the forty-fifth year of his age, when upon fome military fervices ill requited, and meeting at the fame time with a difappointment in the tenderest of paffions, he abandoned the fword and the fex together, and took fanctuary, not so much in his convent as in himself

I feel a damp upon my fpirits as I am going to add, that in my last return through Calais, upon inquiring after Father Lorenzo, I heard he had been dead near three months, and was buried, not in his convent, but, according to his defire, in a little cemetery belonging to it, about two leagues off: I had a strong, defire to fee where they had laid him-when upon pulling out his little horn-box, as I fat by his grave, and plucking up a nettle or two at the head of it, which had no bufinefs to grow there, they all ftruck together fo forcibly upon my affections, that I burst into a flood of tears but I am as weak as a woman; and I beg the world not to fmile, but pity me.

SENT. JOURNEY, P. 34.

FELLOW-FEELING.

HERE is fomething in our nature which en

THERE

gages us to take part in every accident to which man is fubject, from what cause foever it may have happened; but in fuch calamities as a man has fallen into through mere misfortune, to be charged upon no fault or indifcretion of himself, there is fomething then fo truly interefting, that at the firft fight we generally make them our own, not altogether from 'a reflection that they might have been or may be fo, but oftener from a certain generosity and tenderness of nature which difpofes us for compaffion, abstract

די

ed, from all confiderations of felf: fo that without any obfervable act of the will, we fuffer with the unfortunate, and feel a weight upon our fpirits we know not why, on seeing the most common inftances of their diftrefs. But where the fpectacle is uncommonly tragical, and complicated with many circumftances of mifery, the mind is then taken captive at once, and were it inclined to it, has no power to make refiftance, but furrenders itself to all the tender emotions of pity and deep concern. So that when one confiders this friendly part of nature, without looking farther, one would think it impoffible for man to look upon mifery without finding himself in fome measure attached to the intereft of him who fuffers it-I fay one would think it impoffible-for there are some tempers-how fhall I defcribe them ?-formed either of such impenetrable matter, or wrought up by habitual selfishness to such an utter infenfibility of what becomes of the fortunes of their fellow-creatures, as if they were not partakers of the fame nature, or had no lot or connection with the fpecies.

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open to no man's affliction, taking fhelter behind an

appearance of piety, and putting on the garb of reli

gion, which none but the merciful and compaffionate have a title to wear! Take notice with what fanctity he goes to the end of his days, in the same selfish track in which he at firft fet out-turning neither to the right-hand nor the left-but plods on-pores all his life long upon the ground as if afraid to look up, left peradventure he fhould fee aught which might turn him one moment out of that straight line where interest is carrying him; or if, by chance, he ftumbles upon a hapless object of diftrefs, which threatens fuch a disaster to him-devoutly paffing by on the other fide, as if unwilling to trust himself to the impreffions of nature, or hazard the inconveniences which pity might lead him into upon the occafion.

SERMON III. P. 46.

PITY.

N benevolent natures, the impulfe to pity is fo

IN

fudden, that, like inftruments of mufic, which obey the touch-the objects which are fitted to excite fuch impreffions, work so instantaneous an effect, that you would think the will was fcarce concerned, and that the mind was altogether paffive in the fympathy which her own goodness has excited. The truth is the foul is generally in fuch cafes fo bufily taken up and wholly engroffed by the object of pity, that he does not attend to her own operations, or take leifure to examine the principles upon which fhe acts.

SERMON III. P. 51.

SLANDER.

the many revengeful, covetous, falfe, and illnatured perfons which we complain of in the world, though we all join in the cry against them, what man amongst us fingles out himself as a criminal, or ever once takes it into his head that he adds to the number?-or where is there a man so bad, who would not think it the hardest and most unfair imputation, to have any of thofe particular vices laid to his charge?

If he has the symptoms ever fo ftrong upon him, which he would pronounce infallible in another, they are indications of no fuch malady in himfelfhe fees what no one else fees, fome fecret and flattering circumstances in his favour, which no doubt make a wide difference betwixt his cafe, and the parties which he condemns.

What other man speaks so often and fo vehemently against the vice of pride, fets the weakness of it in a more odious light, or is more hurt with it in another, than the proud man himself? It is the fame with the paffionate, the defigning, the ambitious, and fome. other common characters in life; and being a confequence of the nature of fuch vices, and almost infeparable from them, the effect of it are generally fo grofs and abfurd, that where pity does not forbid, it is pleasant to obferve and trace the cheat through the

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